


Darling, You are all I've Ever wanted Love to Be

by SummerRaine14



Series: Spring Buggie Break [4]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Soulmates, Spring Buggie Break
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 16:07:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14264703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerRaine14/pseuds/SummerRaine14
Summary: In this universe, the name of your soulmate will appear on your arm sometime during your 16th year of life. When Betty and Jughead, who have only ever met each other once, find the other's name on their wrists, they both start to question everything they've ever known.





	Darling, You are all I've Ever wanted Love to Be

“Do you believe in it?” Jughead asked his best friend Sweet Pea as they sat the cafeteria table. 

“Do I believe in what?” Sweet Pea wasn’t always the smartest, and he obviously missed the way Jughead was staring at his own arm.

There was this old story that at a time during your sixteenth year, the name of your soulmate would appear on your body in permanent ink resembling a tattoo. Jughead had turned sixteen one month ago, and last night he noticed the name “Elizabeth” in small black letter on his wrist, but Jughead could not think of one person he knew named Elizabeth. The old folks tale said that their name would appear during your sixteenth year after you’ve met them, and if you knew them your entire life, it would show up on your sixteenth birthday, almost to the exact second of the time you were born. It was weird for Jughead, to see a name he didn’t recognize appear on his skin. It couldn’t have been anyone from the Southside, because he’d known them all forever, and Elizabeth was much too nice of a name for any girl from that side of the tracks. Southside High had closed down, and yesterday was their first day at Riverdale High. If Jughead had any guesses, it would be that the name appeared sometime during the day as his leather jacket covered his body, but he couldn’t believe a Northsider was his soulmate. 

“Soulmates.” He said simply, of course, Jughead knew that Sweet Pea did. Their entire life, it had been Jughead, Sweet Pea, and Veronica. Much to his delight, on Sweet Pea’s 16th birthday only a month prior, the name “Veronica” appeared on his arm, and it was then that his childhood crush turned into something much more. Most people did believe in it, because their were crushes that turned into a promise of forever, or people who were lonely knew someone was out there for them. However, Jughead had never seen his mother’s name on his father’s wrists or arms, which was the most common body part for them to appear on. 

“Well of course I do, bro.” He answered, pulling Jughead from his thoughts of the destroyed relationship between his parents. 

“You do what?” Veronica asked, taking a seat beside her boyfriend as she placed down a plate with overly expensive looking food and followed by a blonde girl Jughead could only describe as incredibly beautiful. They had met yesterday, Veronica tried out for the cheerleading team and wanted her boyfriend and best friend to meet her newest friend. Her name was Betty, if Jughead remembered correctly. But if he was being honest, it was hard to focus on what was being said when he looked at her sparkling green eyes. 

“Jug was asking me if I believed in soulmates.” Sweet Pea laughed, leaning in to kiss his girlfriend. 

“Oh, Jug. You’re so funny, of course he does. His soulmate is sitting right here.” Veronica flipped her hair obnoxiously and giggled into her boyfriend’s neck. “Also, you remember Betty? I asked her if she wanted to join us for lunch today.” She smiled, pointing to Betty, who in turn waved at Jughead. “Do you believe in the whole soulmate thing?” Veronica asked, throwing Betty off completely.

“I uh, I don’t really know. I have a name on my wrist, but I’ve never even met the person.” Betty sighed. She’d grown up beside her best friend, Archie Andrews, and always believed they were soulmates. But when her sixteenth birthday rolled around and his name never showed up, that childhood crush was just that, crushed. And then yesterday, Betty was at the after school meeting for their school newspaper when she noticed the name “Forsythe” on her wrist in bold black letters. “I mean, I don’t think there’s a single person in the world with that name.” She smiled shyly, it wasn’t that Betty thought it was a funny name, as much as unusual. 

“Well, what’s the name?” Veronica asked, poor Betty hadn’t realized how nosey the new girl could be. “Come on, their names are Sweet Pea and Jughead. Can’t be worse than that.” She laughed, getting a glare from Jughead as he knew names could be worse. Considering his birth name was much, much worse. 

“Forsythe.” Betty whispered, almost too quiet for anyone to hear. But the look on Jughead’s face told her he had heard her. “See? I told you it was a funny name.” Jughead felt like he couldn’t breathe, was it possible that Betty was short for Elizabeth? Was it seriously possible that his ‘soul mate’, the woman who he would fall in love with, and she fall in love with him, was sat opposite of her in the cafeteria of a school he’d never pictured himself in until a few days ago when his own closed down? No. There was no way that was possible. They were from two different worlds, Veronica and Sweet Pea made sense, they had both grown up in the Southside, Jughead didn’t get the opportunities to talk to girls from the Northside, let alone one of them being his soulmate. No one besides his blood family knew his real name, so, Jughead felt safe. However, that didn’t take away the question at hand, and he needed to figure out the truth sooner rather than later. 

Jughead spent the rest of the afternoon distracted in his classes, it wasn’t that he didn’t  _ want  _ Betty to be his soulmate, but that he thought it was just, well,  _ impossible.  _ She was the head of all her classes, practically a co-captain of the cheerleading squad, had beautiful blonde hair and the most mesmerizing green eyes he’d ever seen-Jughead stopped himself as he thought about her. Jughead wasn’t like most teenagers his age, he didn’t care about how a girl looked or what features they had, truly, he’d never really been attracted to someone before. As he thought about Betty’s eyes, and her waist, and her beautiful smile, it dawned on Jughead that, wow, she might  _ actually  _ be his soulmate. The legends say that the feelings you have for your soulmate are the most intense you will ever feel for anyone, whether they be physical or emotional feelings. As much as he didn’t believe it, everything was pointing at Betty being the “Elizabeth” written on his arm, and he was finding it harder and harder to ignore the signs. As the day dragged on, it dawned on Jughead that he couldn’t figure this stuck in his own head, he needed to talk to Betty to know for sure. So, when the bell rang for the final period to come to an end, he headed to the Blue and Gold, the school’s newspaper that Jughead had learned the day before was run by none other than Ms. Betty Cooper herself. She really was too good for him. He thought as he rounded the corner to the room. 

Jughead found it all a bit weird, the him, the absolute polar opposite of Betty Cooper would be her soulmate. But more so, that they shared a love for something like writing. At first glance, she didn’t strike you as the type to be passionate about things that can be laid out on paper, but Jughead had read the Blue and Gold, even when he wasn’t a student at Riverdale High, and that girl had some incredibly talent and passion. If she was his soulmate, he would be amazed that writing could connect them, When he walked into the office, it was pretty empty, Betty being the only person inside as she sat at a desk with her head in her hands, surrounded by stacks of paper. 

“Uh, Betty?” Jughead said, she jumped back at the sound and nearly fell out of her chair. “Shit, sorry.” He said, rushing over to her and holding the chair up. 

As always, Betty put on her infamous Cooper smile and said, “It’s okay.” 

“Okay.” He smiled back at her, stepping away as he worried he may be too close to her. “Can I ask you something?” 

“Yeah, of course.” She smiled once again. 

“Is Betty short for Elizabeth?” Her eyes widened in confusion, but Jughead continued, “You may have heard of my dad, FP Jones. Well he was FP the second, it’s a family name and unfortunately I got stuck with FP the third. But sometime in my childhood, my dad started calling me Jughead and it just stuck.” He sighed, his nerves were getting the best of him, “FP stands for Forsythe Pendleton and the name Elizabeth appeared on my wrist sometime yesterday.” The silence that fell upon them set chills down Jughead’s back and an unsettling feeling in his stomach. Never in his life had he been this scared. 

“Can I be honest with you?” She asked, and silently, Jughead nodded his head, “I knew it was you. A few years ago, my parents had gotten divorced, and they really did try to keep their fights quiet, but I heard some of them. One of them being that they weren’t each other’s soulmates, and my dad said a name. Forsythe Pendleton Jones.” A single tear fell down Betty’s cheek, but she quickly wiped it away, avoiding eye contact with Jughead, “I asked my mom about it, and she said he was her soulmate, but they never would have worked. She was from the Northside, and he, the South. So, last night when I got home, I pulled up the sleeve of my cardigan to show her the name.  _ Your  _ name.” Betty sighed, trying to hold back her emotions as this was the truth, and the mere thought of it terrified the hell out of her. 

“How does that even happen?” Jughead asked, taking a step back and leaning against another chair. 

“My mom told me that in cases where soulmates don’t end up together, and they go on to have children with other people, their children meet and fall in love. When soulmates aren’t brought together, it causes an imbalance and it has to be fixed somehow.” She finally turned to make eye contact with Jughead, “Doesn’t it all seem kind of forced to you? That the world decides who we love?” 

“Everything in our lives is set out for us, Betty. Between where we live, go to school, who we love, it doesn’t  _ seem  _ forced, it  _ is _ forced.” Jughead corrected her, these were thoughts he’d had over the years, but unfortunately, never met someone who thought the same way. 

“It’s just- I have all my friends talking about their soulmates and how happy they are, but isn’t there a part of them that wishes they’d fallen in love without the pressure of a tattooed name on their skin?” Jughead was in awe at her words, Betty really was more than just a pretty face. “I want more freedom. I don’t want to be on the cheerleading squad, or get out of bed every morning for school, I’d like to choose what I write about. I know these aren’t real problems, but I’d like to have some control in my life.” 

“I know what you mean.” Jughead said quietly, looking down to the floor as he thought about the life he was forced to lead. 

“Do you really have to be in the Serpents gang?” Betty asked, Jughead looked up at her in shock. He’d only been at Riverdale High for two days now, and the people who knew about his forced spot in the infamous Southside gang were all from Southside High. Jughead loved his father, but he never wanted to end up like him. He had hopes and dreams for a better life. 

“Do you really have to take over your parents newspaper when you graduate?” Jughead retorted, he knew that Alice and Hal Cooper, though divorced, owned the town’s newspaper and it was expected of Betty to take over when she finished her high school studies. 

“Touche, Jones.” Betty laughed lightly, Jughead would be damned if it wasn’t the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. “So, if you didn’t have to be a big tough gang leader, what would you do?” She asked, leaning over on the desk to bring her full attention to Jughead. 

“I want to be a writer.” Jughead admitted, it was something he’d never told anyone else before. “An author, more specifically. I’m working on a novel right now.” It almost scared him how he was so honest with her without even trying, “What about you?” 

Betty’s eyes widened, no one had ever asked her what she wanted to be before. Everyone just expected her to be like her mother, and as much as Betty loved the woman, she never wanted to follow in her footsteps. “An editor.” She laughed, Betty did love writing, but there was something about reading through someone else’s work, seeing a story through someone else’s eyes, how different their views may be from her own, it was thrilling. Sure, editors didn’t get nearly as much attention as the authors, but to Betty, it was about what she was doing, not what she was getting from doing it. 

“Maybe you could look over my book when I’m done.” Jughead suggested, the two of them fell into a laugh that felt easier than anything either one of them had ever done. 

 

\--

 

**Five Years Later**

 

After that day in the Blue and Gold, Betty and Jughead exchanged numbers, they fell into a comfortable friendship that lead to much more. Forgetting the names written on their skin, she fell in love with  _ Jughead,  _ and he fell in love with  _ Betty.  _ It had been months before they even shared a kiss, let alone an “I love you”, and over a year before their bodies connected physically for the first time. It was a rocky road, Betty was kicked off the Vixens for her relationship with a guy from the Southside and his peers, while Jughead lost a few of his ‘friends’ for being with a girl from the Northside. It would have been easy enough for them to roll up their sleeves and reveal the names, but both Betty and Jughead agreed that the ink on their wrists would  _ not  _ determine who they were with. Betty spoke with FP, revealing that she knew about him and her mother, yet he was still more than accepting of her being a part of his family. He saw the way she changed Jughead, and for that, he was grateful. Betty also managed to convince Jughead not to join the Serpents, something FP would forever be in her debt for, but she constantly reminded him it was her pleasure. When they graduated high school, Betty and Jughead moved to Brooklyn together, buying a small one bedroom apartment and attended NYU. A year after that, Betty was signed to an editing agency where she would be an intern, and eventually move up the rails to a loved and respected editor in the industry. During her internship, Betty told some of the colleagues she felt more comfortable with about Jughead, and his novel that he’d spent years piecing together. Within a few weeks, he was being called by the agency and they were asking for a copy. Betty’s first year as an editor, Jughead was going through the final publishing stage of his novel, and as they both reached their dream goals, they did it side by side. 

Two years later, they stand here today, in front of all their friends and family. Betty’s dress is a long mermaid fit with lace covering nearly every inch of the dress, while Jughead is in an all-black suit. For once, he isn’t wearing his infamous crown-shaped beanie, and Betty’s hair is down in loose, long waves opposed to her iconic ponytail. Beside Betty is Veronica in a red cocktail dress, and beside Jughead is Sweet Pea in a navy blue suit, both with large smiles on their faces as their two best friends share their vows. 

“Betty Cooper, if someone told me five years ago that we would be here today, in front of everyone we love, vowing to be together for the rest of our lives, I would’ve thought they were insane. You are an intelligent woman with a heart too big for this world, your passion speaks volumes and you stop at nothing for those you love. I have been honoured to spend every day of the last few years with you by my side and in my heart. Most of my dreams have come true, but today is my greatest one. With this ring, I promise to be there through every high and every low, and I hope that you accept me until death do us part.” Jughead was crying, in all their years together, Betty had very rarely ever seen Jughead cry. His hands were shaking as he placed the diamond ring on her finger, and resisted the urge to pull her in for a kiss then and there. 

“Jughead Jones.” Betty choked through her happy sobs, “I feel like I have to remind you every day how worthy you are, because you truly have no idea. You are the greatest man I have ever met, your heart is pure and you light up every room you walk into with your sarcastic humour and wit. All of those things made me fall in love with you. And with this ring, I promise to continue falling in love with those parts of you, while reminding you how incredible you are, every day, until death do us part.” Betty placed the ring band on Jughead’s finger, and held tightly onto his hands, because even after all these years, they calmed her down. 

  
“You may kiss the bride.” Without wasting another second, Jughead pulled Betty in and rested his hands on her cheeks as he kissed her soundly. He knew that this was  **_forever._ **


End file.
